Values

It's was a lovely night spend at home doing your favorite things. Finally, you climb into you bed to get as much snooze time as possible before you start the day again. Just when you start dreaming of a day on the beach, you hear a siren. This wasn't the siren of a far off fire truck, but rather right in your hallway. The fire alarm. You jump out of bed and remember that you put your final load of laundry into the dryer just before you went to bed. The lint of the dryer started a fire. You have 2 minutes to get out of the house. What do you do? Which items, people do you think about in those two minutes as you scramble to save yourself? Let's look at this at another angle. What flashes through your head when you slam on your brakes when a car cuts you off? Those people, memories, items are you values.

What does it mean to have value? Precious gems, a house, a vacation have a price tag. But what about people or memories?

How do you put a price tag on inanimate objects? I always think of those credit card commercials where it lists items that have a cost and one item that is "priceless".

What we value says something about you. We may have similar values, but we can all think of something that we value that someone else thinks has no value. Maybe it is a hand-me-down from Great-Great- Grandma, or an evening with friends chatting about life. When I think of a priceless item, I go back to my mission trip to Mexico City. While I was there I kept a journal. The journal was simple, but it contained greatness. It contained my conversations with God, my reflections over my experiences, and descriptions of my daily activities. I kept it with me during the trip in a backpack. When my bag was stolen, I missed this journal more than my wallet. I could replace my debit card, my ID, but my journal was irreplaceable. My cheap camera was also stolen and all those pictures I sure miss as well.

Values say something about a society as well. A night out at the movies was a treat decades ago. Now it is something young people do every weekend. A piece of candy was earned in the days of our parents, it was a treat to get a nickle to spend on a treat. Now, we get buckets of candy at Halloween, special treats at every holiday and a piece as a frequent reward in professors' offices. A movie and candy were seen as luxuries years ago in society. In society today, what are our luxuries? A trip to another country? An opportunity to go to college? A night without homework? What we count as a luxury depends upon our status, our wealth, and our history.

A person's values tell you about them and about what they care about the most. Something so simple, but yet so important!